More helpful people

Just a quick note on more people who were helpful.
So there was a girl who helped me carry my heavy suitcase downstairs in the subway; a guy who helped me open my bottle that I had screwed on too tight; and another (fairly cute) guy who helped me carry my suitcase upstairs one flight in the hostel the first day we moved in.

Nice, nice people. So people in New York aren't too busy to help.

Hours for one second

Whoo...today was my first, and very possibly last, time to count down to New Year's in Times Square. I arrived at 42nd st to meet my friend, but so many streets were barred by the police and I could only enter from 52nd st. I barreled my way to 51st st. and Broadway, and was stuck in the crowd. Little by little the crowd--impatient and getting mad about not being able to get through--managed to push their way through to 50th, 49th, and finally midway between 48th and 49th. And that's where we stood for several hours, until around 11:30pm when the police finally opened the gates and let us through to the next "bin". Yip, that's what the police called it. We are animals being controlled and herded from one pen to another, and you can't even return to the same bin if you want to go out and get coffee or go to the bathroom. I was at the front edge of our bin, and that's where all the goodies stopped. By goodies I mean those funny-looking blue Nevea hats, pom-poms, and even scarves. And I could only stand in the freezing cold, watching the people in the bin in front of ours grab for these free items. Then came the blue Nivea balloons with silver streamers. Thankfully, some people were nice enough to pass on some of those to us, and that's how I got mine.
It was exciting to feel the human pulse amidst the crowd, as it was like a rippling effect, both physically and spiritually. Spiritually because you can feel the mounting anger (when we were too far to see the ball), impatience, but also the people's excitement building up to a climax that effects you; physically because you're sandwiched between people and don't have total control over your body except try to maintain your balance. In both aspects it is easy to be affected by the crowd, and I finally have first-hand experience on how dangerous a mob, when turned angry, can be.
It was also sort of annoying how you really don't have total freedom and domination over your own body when you choose to stay and wait for that climactic moment. For the climax of the event you must choose to yield your desire for food, beverage, warmth, and the luxury of the restroom. The police keep you shut in an area like a pig penm, and you can't choose to move forward. Also because there are so many people behind you, you can't really move backward either. But if you choose to give up the strike of midnight, you can immediately leave the pen and have all of this freedom back.
Despite all of the above, it was fun and I would say it was worth it for the first time, but man I am never going to do this ever again. Once was enough.
Funny how I just went to the zoo during the day and was herded into the pens in the evening...

Poor Goose

Today was just a long, long walk. I went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which was a pretty nice break from the crazy and chaotic Manhattan. There weren't many people, and there was a lovely little lake. When I saw the patch of blue, I scurried down the hill to meet it. I came to its side, and what do you know among the flock of birds--geese, pigeons, ducks, etc.--a goose came waddling right up to me. It wasn't shy or afraid, and I guess it expected me to feed it. Too bad I only had a 6 inch sub, my dinner, so I couldn't give that up. I took a picture of it though, and when I looked at the photo closely, I realized that it was missing half of its top beak.


The poor little thing. I felt a little bad I didn't give it anything to eat.
Here's one view of the little lake:




Next I went to the Botanic Garden next to the park, and it was nice too but I bet it is much lovelier in the spring and summer when the flowers are all blooming. Then I rushed over to the Museum of Natural History, and for 2.5 hours I breezed through the galleries, allowing myself half an hour for each floor. I should've headed over earlier, but I couldn't help lingering in the park since it was such a nice day. Hopefully tomorrow will be too, cuz I plan to head for the zoo.

Fifth Ave

Today was not my first time up 5th ave., but I wanted to visit the Disney store again, so I rammed into the crowd and elbowed my way up the streets...5th ave. these days is certainly a tumultuous river of people streaming up and down. I passed the American Girl store, and I have to say as I was once an American Girl lover, it is much, much too commercialized now. A full store of dolls and merchandise is just too much for me. I miss the old days where there was just four of them, and probably just a limited amount of merchandise. They've generated too much commercial products for this series. I feel sad and I am gradually losing my sincere love for the American Girls.

I finally came to the Disney store, and here is my favorite figurine:


I wonder why I don't feel Disney is too commercialized. Maybe because it didn't start out as books and is much of a commodity.

By the way

Since I walked 4.5 hours in the Met Museum and made my way towards Times Square by foot today, my feet officially do not belong to me anymore.

My Feat/Feet

Boy are my feet TIRED. I swear they are not mine anymore...

Yesterday I walked from 24th street all the way up Fifth Ave. to 60th street. 36 streets. Is that amazing or what. I sure think so. But my legs do ache. Oh well. It's worth it.

So to start our trip from the beginning. We hopped on a Chinatown bus to New York on the 21st, dropping off my friend's one-wheel-broken suitcase at the place she's staying later, then headed for DC. But let me talk about New York first. We arrived on the evening of Christmas day, and after we dropped off our things (a pretty huge hassle on my part cuz I was lugging around a 20kg suitcase with a bulging backpack up and down the stairs of the NY subway) we went to walk around Rockefeller. We saw the beautiful tree, and oh oh oh here's the best part. I heard people starting to cheer and woohoo at the skating rink, so of course I had to look too, and there was a guy getting down on his knees, PROPOSING to this other guy. He accepted, and they got up and kissed and hugged. I've never seen anything like it before, and it's a sort-of-weird but heartwarming scene. And someone beside me yelled "You're gonna be on Youtube!", while a woman on my other side tried to cover up her kid's eyes. Hold on, let me see if they really are up on the tube. Nope. At least I can't find it. Maybe it will turn up sometime.

Yesterday I chanced upon the Jewish community lighting up a huge menorah at the edge of Central Park. It was really touching, especially afterwards when a family started dancing around in a circle holding hands and singing their holiday song (I think). Then they all got into their cars and vans, each with a lit menorah (7 lights) on top, like a parade, and they leaned out their windows and wished everyone a Happy Hanukkah. It was really great.
I also went to the world's largest Macy's, and boy it really is HUGE. EIGHT floors, all huge. Huge huge huge. They had wooden elevators too, which I saw for the first time. My favorite part has gotte be the top floor, where the Toy Circus is.

Let me rewind now. On the morning (in the very wee hours) that we set out, Boston had many inches of deep snow and we were snail-speed slowly making our way towards the T stop. We had progressed about half a block before a car crawled by, then backed up. We were soooooooooooooooooooooooooo thankful! This man, Mark (or Mike) Coehn (or Cohen), who was in his sixties but did not look that old because he went swimming everyday, offered to drive us to the T stop, and after knowing we were headed to South Station, decided to drive us there. Isn't that awesome of him??? So very nice. He said he couldn't let himself pass by two girls dragging their suitcases in the deep snow, so he decided it would be a good deed. And indeed it was. What normally was a 7-minute walk to the T-stop would have been a 45-minute tow-and-drag-and-grunt-and-sweaty journey became a breeze. That was the first kindhearted person that helped us. There were others, but what I remember now is a girl who even helped me drag my suitcase to the NY subway and down the stairs as well when I asked her for directions. Nice, nice people in the big city.

I visited Toys R' Us in Times Square the day before, and boy oh boy was it a madhouse: kids everywhere, strollers everywhere, toys all over the floor. It was awesome to experience that craziness though. That reminds me, when I went to the KB Toys store in Manhattan Mall, they were having a 50% off everything sale because they were closing business. I rushed in to see if I could get anything, and my jaw dropped. It was WHITE. Practically all the shelves, white-colored, were cleaned off, and only some nonexciting-looking toys were in small piles here and there in like, two rows of shelves. And some were scattered all over the floor in front of the cashiers. I did get some Crayola art supplies and a sketchpad. I was so happy.

Now of course there are unhappy and challenging moments when you go out, especially when travelling with somebody else, and I've had my share. But, the most recent, most unfortunate event has left me aghast. Somehow, while I was washing my face last night, my soap--my lovely little piece of soap--had to desert me and slipped down the drain. Why don't they have a little thingy that blocks stuff from going down the drain here like all normal drains do?? Now I have to hope that its soapy remains in the bag will last me for the remainder of my trip, and wish that my soap has a lovely journey down the pipe and to who-knows-where while it slowly perishes. What a way for it to end its life. But then, maybe a mouse has found it and it will clean its fur, or it could become a slippery boat for a small creature. Hmm...maybe it has now travelled to Times Square. Maybe "The Cricket in Times Square" has left too much of an impact on my mind.

I keep trying to remember what I want to write down when I'm out, and I'm not doing very well. I believe that I have more to tell, but as of now, my puny brain needs some rest.

Snow!!

Haha...we had a snowstorm yesterday and it kept snowing today, giving us a thick blanket of white fluff. In the evening I finally could resist no longer and went out to play in the snow. It's weird, somehow whenever I see a clean, thick and crunchy patch of snow I just want to jump in it and make my mark. I just love making crunches in the snow.

So I went to the park down the street, and started to build a snowman in the middle of the field. Only the snow was too fluffy, not the sticky kind, as I later learned, so it's not my fault if I can't build one today. I was in the middle of piling up snow, when I heard a child say "Can we help her?" Before I knew it two kids, one little girl and one little boy, came running towards me and asked me if they could help me. Of course I said "Yes Please Do!" I'm always ready to have playmates. So the three of us started concentrating on building up the snow mountain, which they decided what it should be. Then Kyle, the boy, suggested it should be a snow volcano, which of course is much more cool. Once it was high enough, Kyle went and stuck his fist into the tippy top, making a hole for the lava. After Kyle and Alexia and me piled up more snow and decided it was big enough, we counted "1,2,3!" and we all splashed into the mound of fluff, the beautiful snow volcano promptly destroyed.
Kyle then enticed me into a game of tag, where I was the wolf and he a snow fox. The wolf has to catch fox, which it did much to the fox's surprise, as he never anticipated that the wolf could run so fast in the snow. All the while Alexia diligently continued to work on that mountain of snow, smoothing it out nicely. Huffing and puffing, the wolf decided to help Alexia and the fox turned his attention to the playground.
A bit later me and Alexia decided to make a snow bed. We finally did, and I even made a snow pillow for her, which scattered into pieces the moment her head touched it. She was so cute. She even made a hole in the snow bed for her bum. While she was lying down, trying out her new bed, I lay down too and made my first snow angel, which I must say was quite impressive.
After a while their grandpa decided it was time to go home and order pizza, and we went our own way. I had only walked a few steps when I saw Kyle running towards me, his arms wide open, and thrust himself into me for a hug. Isn't that the sweetest? Man I love those kids already, and we've only known each other for like, an hour.